In this News 13 "On Your Side" segment, anchor John Chrysos introduces the "12 Scams of Christmas" series, focusing on holiday‑season fraud that proliferates on online classified sites such as Craigslist. McAfee online‑security expert Robert Siciliano explains why phony classified ads are among the most dangerous scams, warning viewers to avoid wire transfers, pay only cash, and meet sellers locally. The segment illustrates the mechanics of a PayPal‑based shipping/insurance scam through the real‑world story of Harry Riddle, who was duped out of $3,100 after a fake PayPal confirmation email prompted him to wire money for a boat sale. Viewers are given practical red‑flag cues (e.g., requests to wire money, vague trust statements) and directed to PayPal’s legitimacy‑checking service. The overall aim is to raise consumer awareness and provide actionable steps to protect holiday shoppers from classified‑ad fraud.
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Well, this week our holiday shopping is kicking into high gear, and so are cyber criminals who are getting ready to take advantage of your increased good cheer to spread scams.
So tonight we are starting a new On Your Side series, the 12 Scams of Christmas. News 13's John Chrysos is counting them down.
Online classified websites may be a great place to look for holiday gifts, but you You'll want to watch out for phony offers that ask for too much personal information or ask you to wire money. So that's why phony classifieds leads our list of the 12 Scams of Christmas. This ad on Craigslist for a pocket watch could be legit, but it's full of red flags. The poster says, quote, "Trust I am honest," and asks for potential buyers to wire money.
Buy locally. Yeah. Never buy sight unseen via classifieds, especially Craigslist. It's a haven for criminals.
McAfee Online Security expert Robert Siciliano put together a long list of holiday scams. He agrees phony classifieds are one of the worst.
Bad guys are utilizing Craigslist and other classified sites to set up fake online dating profiles. They're selling fake pets, pets that don't actually exist, shipping scams.
He says when buying an item from an online classified, pay in cash. And don't pay a cent until you have the item. If you're trying to raise some Christmas cash by selling something online, watch out, you can get taken that way too.
You also need to be careful about the people who respond to those ads. It's amazing the amount of response that you get on Craigslist that is actually scammers.
That's what happened to Harry Riddle. He put an ad on Craigslist and got an email from someone interested in buying a boat.
Need to go through PayPal. If you don't have a PayPal account, you need to open a PayPal account.
That's when the scam began.
Started getting correspondence from him on PayPal paper, so, uh, you know, I figured it was pretty well legitimate.
He got a confirmation email with the PayPal logo showing his account had $5,500 deposited from the buyer. Then the buyer asked him to wire money for shipping and insurance fees, which he did, but the confirmation emails were fakes, and Riddle, the seller, was out $3,100.
Uh, anybody that's doing any kind of dealings like that need to really be on the lookout.
So the bottom line here, if you're selling something, you should never have to pay. PayPal says it's trying to protect customers from scammers. There's this section on the website called Learn If It's Legitimate. You can forward an email to them and they'll tell you if it's real or a scam. John Crisos, 13 On Your Side.
